The Georgia Southern University researchers, using data on 27,350 adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, examined overweight or obese adults during the periods of 1988 to 1994, 1999 to 2004 and 2009 to 2014 — finding that between those first and last spans, the prevalence of overweight or obesity climbed from 53% to 66%.

But between the same two stretches of time, the proportion of Americans aged 20 to 59 who reported trying to shed pounds within the last 12 months dropped from 56% to 49%, a shift the authors theorized could be due to heavier weights gaining wider social acceptance.

Black women had the highest obesity prevalence in the 2009 to 2014 survey, with the percent of those trying to lose weight declining from 66% to 55%, the researchers found.

Lead study author Dr. Jian Zhang, an associate professor at GSU, acknowledged that it's "really challenging" to drop those pounds, and also easy to give up. He suggested people focus their efforts on prevention.

"Let's forget 'fat,' 'obese,' all the bad words," he told the Daily News. "Let's just try to engage in a healthy lifestyle: eating less and moving."